Far-right parties are expected to win a significant number of the seats in the European Parliament following three days of voting.
Exit polls are predicting far-right parties clinching 150 of the parliament’s 720 seats, following voting across the European Union’s 27 member states.
If the predicted seats are won then mainstream parties may find it harder to form majorities needed to pass laws.
In a speech late Sunday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was quoted as saying by CNN that the results showed her European People’s Party (EPP) – predicted to secure the most seats – could still act as an “anchor of stability”, but called on her political allies to help guard against extremist parties.
“The center is holding. But it is also true that the extremes on the left and on the right have gained support, and this is why the result comes with great responsibility for the parties in the center,” she told an audience in Brussels.
France dissolves parliament
With exit polls predicting Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) dominating the show, French President Emmanuel Macron surprised his nation by announcing his decision to dissolve the parliament and calling for snap polls.
Initial results showed RN securing 31.5 percent of the vote, more than double the share of Macron’s Renaissance Party, which scraped to second place on 15.2 percent of the vote, just ahead of the Socialists in third with 14.3 percent, reported CNN.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz struggles
Exit polls also showed a similar poor show by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
As per predictions, his Social Democrats (SD) scored their worst-ever result with 14 percent.
In the polls, the Christian Democrats Party (CDU) are estimated to dominate with 29.5 percent of the vote and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) securing 16.5 percent.